El Arroyo is one of my favorite places to go for Happy Hour. There is always such an awesome crowd at this place, especially on Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. The crowd usually consists of people at every age range, usually at least 21 and up. El Arroyo is a hot spot on Thursday’s for people who are planning on going downtown later in the night. It is usually the first stop of the night for people to have dinner and drinks before they go out on the town.

The most appealing thing about this restaurant is how amazingly priced everything is. In addition to great prices, the crowd is always pretty enthusiastic. El Arroyo is definitely a fun place to go have drinks and watch a sporting event with your friends. In the inside dining room, there are four big flat screen televisions above the bar. As well as an indoor dining room, there are two outdoor patios, so you can choose whether you would rather be seated inside or outside.

The Happy Hour schedule and specials are as follows:

Mondays 2 pm to 7 pm: $2.75 House Frozen and Margaritas on the Rocks, $1 Tecates from 5 pm to closing, Two for one burger special from 5 pm to closing

Tuesdays from 2 pm to 7 pm: $2.75 House Frozen and Margaritas on the Rocks

Frozen Margarita at El Arroyo

Wednesday’s from 2 pm until 7 pm: $2.75 House Frozen and Margaritas on the Rocks

Thursday: $.99 House Margaritas from 2 pm to 6 pm, $1.99 House Margaritas from 6 pm to 7 pm

Friday from 2 pm to 6 pm: $2.75 House Frozen and Margaritas on the Rocks

I think the most appealing thing about this Happy Hour menu is the $.99 House Margaritas on Thursdays. I would say the best day of the week for El Arroyo is definitely on Thursdays. If you are looking for a place to start your night off before you head downtown, El Arroyo is the place for you. I give this place a definite thumbs-up.

The Ranch, located on West Sixth St. in downtown Austin, has Happy Hour going on all day on Sundays. While The Ranch is definitely one of my favorite spots to hit up on Thursday and Saturday nights, I would not recommend this venue for Happy Hour. This place has a really chill atmosphere at night so one would assume that it is a good place to go to on Sundays to watch sports, with their many small flat screen TV’s surrounding the bar as well as a big screen TV on the wall closer to the outdoor deck. Nevertheless, the thing The Ranch is missing is people! The bar was practically empty today, minus one couple that was eating lunch. If employees at The Ranch could maybe promote their Happy Hour a little better I think it would really impact their turn out.

As far as the menu goes, the deals aren’t that great. The first thing that turned me off from The Ranch’s Happy Hour today, besides the fact that there was nobody there, was when I asked the bartender for a menu of their Happy Hour options, he told me that they did not have one. So in terms of the prices for the drinks, here is what he told me: It is basically $1 off everything. Anheuser-Busch beverages are $3, Well Liquors are $4 and Call Drinks are $5.

The atmosphere is lacking, the prices aren’t so great for Happy Hour, and it doesn’t really seem like they are so organized based on the fact that they did not have a menu to even show me. In addition, their website has been under construction for about two weeks now, which can really hurt business because information about the bar is not easily accessible even through a simple Google search. The only thing you can really determine when looking up the bar on Google is their address and telephone number. Overall, I’d have to give this Happy Hour a thumbs-down.